Life As We Know It
by Ehvy
Summary: A sudden request is made and a new assistant is taken in. The girl with no name, the lover of a fate that despises her, the child of change. The cycle begins once again. "When I look into her eyes, I'm reminded of her."
1. Chapter 1

_This world may hold many mysteries...but no matter how strange, how bizarre an incident may seem, if people are not present, if people do not witness it, if people are not involved, then it is nothing more than a phenomenon, an affair that will simply pass. People, people, people…people themselves are the most profoundly mysterious beings in this world. _

He woke, like so many other times, from a dream he wished were only a dream. A dream where shadows ensnared fragile butterfly wings and darkness gulped at a lovely face. Where the bitter sense of hopelessness and cold shock never failed to disappear, no matter how many times the dream would repeat itself. He woke from a dream where his reason for existence was lost to powers beyond his control.

After so long, though, he had begun, not to become numb to it nor even accept it, but to gradually start expecting the dream, unsurprised when it showed up once in a while. In a way, he mused, those depressing and desperation-filled dreams kept him going, renewing and damaging his resolve in waiting for the original owner to show. They were a smack to the face, a sharp reminder to what he had lost—though he still had Maru and Moro and even Mokona, life was not the same without the all-knowing Time-Space Witch around. He found himself, more often after the repeats of The Dream, spacing out and reminiscing distant pasts where her playful smirk and misguiding comments lead him round and round in circles. Yet, The Dream's purpose was not to serve as _just_ a reminder.

"Maru, Moro," he called after a nearly undetectable pause in his cooking. "Come help me finish making the meal. Mokona, go get the door. A guest has arrived."

Kimihiro Watanuki, the current owner of the wish-granting store, had long surpassed the days where he would be caught unprepared in the arrival of a new guest. Gone were the green days of his rookie years, where he would be caught up in jobs way out of his league, measuring wishes with no eye for real, equivalent compensation and the constant injuries of inequivalent retaliation. He had grown much since her death, able to barter for rare dreams and rummage through the storage on his own. On the off days where he had customers, he would have already boiled the tea and made refreshments long before any potential patrons would have stepped out of their houses. It was rare, now, that customers would catch him off guard. Days like this, for example.

Stepping in front of the stranger occupying his front entrance, Watanuki offered a knowing smile at the man, gesturing to the hallway with a light sweep of his arm for him to enter. "Welcome, mister. It's rare for a male customer to show up. I hope Mokona has treated you well." The stranger stood there, with seemingly no intention of replying as he glanced first at the interior of the building then at Watanuki. "Of _course_ I treated him well! Mokona only does Mokona's best, after all! So Mokona deserves some sake, okay?!" the little black manju jumped up and down, trying to catch Watanuki's attention before he signaled with a nod to the giggling girls to scurry him along. From his peripheral vision, Watanuki did not miss the long stare that was directed at the two little girls.

Facing the silent man again, Watanuki motioned for him to follow him. "I apologize for the ruckus and lack of provisions. Your visit was…a little bit unexpected. I really should have seen you coming, but it seems that I had ignored the signs." Rubbing his forehead, he sighed, remembering the dream within a dream yet again.

The man walked past him, straight down the hall without a single response, seeming to know the way towards the room intended for receiving customers. Watanuki was left standing in the entrance alone, looking after the intensely silent man. Rubbing his head, he allowed himself a small sigh. _This feels a little like talking to an angry Doumeki_. Giving a small, hidden shake of his head, he continued down the hall, after his new customer.

"I don't know why I am here today, or even the reason why I entered into this building," was the man's first sentence as he faced Watanuki, ignoring the freshly-placed cup of chamomile tea in front of him. _His stare is intense_, Watanuki mused absent-mindedly, his hands placed on his lap. Turning to look through the window, he recited the speech he gave to every confused customer that came his way. "The reason why you came to this shop today may not be known to you, and may not _need_ to be known to you. But you are here and your being here is proof that fate has brought you this way. This is the inevitability of this world—'_hitsuzen_'. Only those who have a strong desire are able to see this shop." He closed his mismatched eyes against the evening sun and opened them again, turning his full attention toward the man. "Tell me, Mister Customer, what is this wish that you want me to grant?"

The pattern that usually occurs when Watanuki first gets to know his customers usually starts with confusion—why are they here, what store is this, who_ are_ you? The second reaction was usually, one, a wish they _knew_ they wanted granted, or a problem they do not notice but wish for it to be solved anyway. This man was of the former, with his near instant reply after a moment of uncomfortable silence. "I would like for you to accept a child."


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own XXXholic. Though if I did, Yuuko would be alive

Thanks for Reading! XD

* * *

"What have I told you." Watanuki glowered, hand on waist, as he glared down at Doumeki from within the shop. Much like his recently-departed customer, Doumeki gave no sign of having heard him, lifting up a hand and saying "Yo" offhandedly instead. Watanuki sighed, knowing that there was no use in reprimanding him. There was just no hope for good manners in that family. Shaking his head, Watanuki turned around, reluctantly gesturing with a hand for Doumeki to enter. "So," Watanuki turned his head slightly to make eye contact "did you bring what I asked for?" Doumeki nodded, holding up a plastic bag for Watanuki to give a nodding approval of before he went ahead and asked what was on his mind. "Where are—" "Maru and Moro?" Watanuki interrupted without barely a pause. Waving a hand dismissively when he sensed Doumeki's slighted glare on his back, he replied with little interest, "helping Mokona with cleaning up the customer's room."

The tension in between them visibly increased as Doumeki halted, forcing Watanuki to turn his attention on him. Doumeki had never needed to use many words—his facial expressions and little body language helped him through any required conversations, though he seemed to be the type who would rather avoid such conversations than be involved with them. The tightening around Doumeki's eyes spoke volumes to Watanuki as they faced each other. Making eye contact for a tense moment, Watanuki was the first to break off the staring contest and drop his head into a long sigh, before turning back around and continuing his trek down the hall.

"You don't have to worry so much, you know," Watanuki called behind him as he made his way past the open doors to the garden, not caring if Doumeki was following him anymore. After a hesitant half-second, Doumeki chose to continue after Watanuki. "It's my job to worry about you," Doumeki replied stoically. Watanuki snorted, entering into the newly-cleaned guest room. "No, it's not. It was never your job to begin with. You just decided to go all protective mother bear on me." Sitting down lazily without a care for posture, he reached over and lifted Yuuko's red pipe to his lips, eyes unfocused as he stared down the stem. "I'm not a little kid anymore, Doumeki," he muttered absently, more to himself than to his old friend. "I can take care of myself now." He punctuated his little monologue with a deep inhale and exhale of smoke, blowing the haze directly into Doumeki's face.

Completely unfazed, Doumeki stared straight back. "But you'll get lonely," he replied with an expressionless face. A bark of laughter erupted from Watanuki as he recognized Doumeki's twisted sense of humour. After all the years, he had discovered that each line of sons closely resembled the original father who had started the strange arrangement of provided assistants. And with each one, he learned their individual personalities and their similarities. This one in particular had inherited their father's strange sense of humour. _No_, Watanuki mused, _this one in particular seems to resemble their patriot the closest_.

Exhaling another teasing puff into the Doumeki's face, Watanuki pulled up straighter, pulling at his kimono and twirling the pipe. "So," he leveled his gaze at him. "What is it that you would like to ask me?" He watched with unconcealed amusement as a flash of surprise flitted across the taller man's face before it was forcefully schooled into an impressive poker face. Smiling brightly in hopes of pressing at his buttons more, Wataunki patiently waited, smoking his pipe at intervals in Doumeki's anticipated silence.

Finally, Doumeki spoke. "How was your client?" There was a nearly undetectable waver in his voice that had never happened when he had talked to their patriot. _I guess he isn't as confident as his patriot, hmm_, Watanukie thought absentmindedly to himself as he exhaled the puff of smoke he had been holding in before answering Doumeki's question.

"He wishes to abandon his child."

Watanukie had replied with such offhandedness, with such irrelevancy in his voice that it took Doumeki a moment to process precisely what he had just said.

"…they wish to _abandon_ a child?" Doumeki asked incredulously, with all the incredulousness a Doumeki could incorporate into an audial form.

Humming his affirmation with little care to the answer, Watanuki corrected Doumeki. "Well, the real desire from the customer was to 'not have her in my care anymore', which is, in my opinion," Watanuki's eyes narrowed as he looked around the clean guest room, "the same as abandoning their child."

A tense moment of silence followed their short conversation as Watanuki refused to make eye contact and smoke his pipe with hidden anger bubbling beneath his calm demeanor. Doumeki stared at his hands, wondering to himself why as parent would want to do something like that.

"Did he seem like a mean man?" Doumeki broke the quiet with a steady-voiced question. Watanuki raised a questioning brow at him. "Did he have a hatred of children?" Doumeki clarified. "Or did he seem to have no love for children? Or was he just uncaring? Did he outright offend or try to harm Maru and Moro?"

Watanuki looked back at his pipe, thinking back to the previous events of the day, before placing the pipe onto his lips and inhaling.

* * *

-Five hours ago-

"You would like me to do _what,_ exactly?" Watanuki asked after a shocked beat of unresponsive silence. It had taken him the period of silence to reign in his reflexive emotions. No matter how many years had passed, some clients never seemed to fail to amaze him with their eccentric or damaging wishes. _It's a good thing I wasn't drinking that tea_, Watanuki thought warily to himself, _or else it would have come right back out_.

The man was staring unabashedly at him, not at all fazed by his earlier request. "You can't do that? Then I guess that this place is a scam, then." As he moved to get up, Watanuki held up a hand, flat-palmed and facing the man. "Please wait, Mr. Customer, before you decide on such an opinion." Placing his hands back into his lap when his customer remained where he was, Watanuki sighed, reluctant to deal with such a customer. _How did Yuuko-san do it?_ he muttered silently to himself, rubbing discreetly at his temple.

But no matter how much he wished Yuuko-san was in his place, _hitsuzen_ had brought this customer to his place, at his time, and so he would handle him.

"First of all," Watanuki stared directly into his client's eyes, prepared to lock onto any facial expressions or body language that might give him more information than what he heard from the client. "Can you please start from the beginning: what are you reasons and why would you want me to accept a child? I am assuming that this child is an acquaintance of yours, am I right?"

The man nodded, finally reaching a tentative hand towards the now cool cup of tea. Watanuki waited, knowing that such clients needed to take their time.

"I…know. I know that I am a loveless man. I married ten years ago, to a woman I thought I loved. We had a child a year after we married. She bore me a daughter, and I thought I loved her, too." Watanuki watched as his hands remained loose around the cup, and listened as his voice remained cold, uncaring, as he continued his story. "When my daughter turned 5, my wife left us and moved back to her hometown. She left us, saying that she couldn't love a loveless many like me anymore, that she was tired of having to love a man that would never love her back. We haven't heard from her since then." Still the man remained unresponsive to his own tale, emotionlessly reciting what he knew back to Watanuki, just like a robot.

"My daughter is 9 this year. She's a good girl; she's quiet, does the chores without being asked, and keeps good grades at school. She is a girl who, if her grandparents were alive, would do them proud." Watanuki had not missed, throughout his entire monologue, how he never said "me". "She would do _them_ proud." " She left _us_." " _We_ haven't heard from her." Not once did the man ever refer to himself as the lone reciprocate of such warm emotions. "But even though she's a good girl," the man continued, not breaking eye contact, the lack of emotion in his dark eyes almost daring Watanuki to argue what he was about to say. "I realized that not once have I loved her, and that I never will. As such, she is only a burden to me in my life. I do not wish for her to be with me any longer. Of course," he barely paused for breath, even though shock was clearly shown on Watanuki's face, " I don't wish to abandon her, either. I would give her to her mother, but I don't even know where she went. I would give her to relatives, but we don't have any. So," he stared straight into Watanuki's mispaired eyes, putting forth his request with little proclamation of earnest or genuine desire. "if this is a shop that grants wishes, then I wish for you to accept my daughter into your custody."

* * *

"He was a terrible man." Watanuki glowered openly when he remembered, visibly trying to resist the urge to chew angrily on the biting end of the pipe. "Throwing away a child just because it's inconvenient for them. If even _they_ realize that they're loveless, than rather than dumping the child away, _fix your damn problem_. I sell **_wishes_**, _for crying out loud. Ask and you'll receive! **Yeesh!**_" Watanuki ranted, unconsciously fisting his kimono in one hand to keep from destroying the pipe held in the other.

Doumeki blankly watched Watanuki during his tantrum, loudly crunching on the snacks that Maru and Moro had, at one point during Watanuki's reminiscing, brought in. "_Terrible man, terrible man!_" Maru and Moro sang happily after Watanuki, twirling in circles around the properly seated Doumeki. "_Yeesh, yeesh!_" The collapsed into Watanuki in a giggling fit, wrapping their slender arms around his waist. Taken by surprise, Watanuki stumbled back a little at the sudden weight, before smiling and gently hugging them back. "Yup, Maru, Moro, he's a terrible man." He grinned a little, managing to pick them both up for a brief second and swinging them around before he collapsed from their extra weight. The twins delightedly squealed as they fell, arms clinging to his neck, bright smiles on their faces. "Ah! Mokona wants to play, too!" Mokona gasped, jumping and landing full-force on Watanuki's face. "Mokona, too! Mokona, too!" The twins echoed, clapping their hands and tossing Mokona around. Ignoring the manju's muffled protests, Watanuki sat up properly again, watching the happy scene playing out in front of him, before he sighed and remembered his and Doumeki's conversation.

"He is a terrible man." Watanuki stood up, brushing off his kimono and taking the forgotten plastic grocery bag from Doumeki and walking off toward the kitchen. "But he'll be back again tomorrow. As that is what _hitsuzen_ has decided."


End file.
